Mobile digital and media devices such as cameras, recorders on mobile phones and social media have changed Smartphone use drastically. As a result, during high network use times, there is now increased fear that mobile networks will fail, leaving users without the ability to even make a simple voice call. In particular, wireless traffic is predicted to more than double during events such as sporting events or elections, with broadcast media, sports officials and personnel and the millions of users all trying to access the wireless network. While various precautions can be taken in an attempt to prepare, such as WiFi network overlays, new hotspots and constant network performance testing, signaling challenges of today's smart phone driven services will persist and evolve even as wireless networks transition to LTE.
LTE offers some hope of signaling reduction with radio optimization and changes in mobility management that should reduce signaling. For example, LTE has several differences that will drive more signaling potentially at a rapid pace. Key among these includes changes that enable richer services including IP multimedia subsystem support that will drive new types of business apps and services. These new services are possible on LTE due to the combination of faster network speeds and Smartphone computing power; however, they also will lead to more signaling and as such, LTE networks are not a panacea for signaling issues.
Part of that consideration should be traffic optimization, which can ameliorate signaling that comes from applications and from the network and optimizing traffic for resource conservation. However, traffic optimization components or processes should not be introduced as a bottleneck or single point of failure in wireless networks in the event of equipment failure, site failure, or capacity handling issues.